So, what about those results?
The best word to describe these performances and this album is fun. The performers sound like they're still having a blast making music, the fans sound like they're having fun watching men who practically invented a genre, and you're a real sour sort if you can listen to this CD without a smile spreading across your face. This is another great example of the beautiful contradiction of the blues: "sad" music that makes you happy. Of course, the blues is so much more than sad music but you get the idea.
This isn't the quintessential live blues album, but it's worthwhile for the fun that it is. It's also not the place to start if you want to hear these guys at the top of their game, but the joy of Perkins' performance, the stories of Townsend, the enthusiasm of Edwards, and the polish of Lockwood are potent enough to overcome what time has taken from them. Just think, Keith Richards and Mick Jagger still have 30 years to go to catch up with these guys!
These four men were there for the birth of perhaps the most influential music form in history. Great talents have come and gone since, but when Pinetop and Honeyboy leave us we really will have seen "The Last of the Great Mississippi Delta Bluesmen." Until that time, and beyond, we have Live in Dallas.
Note: The album is not available through mass merchant retailers, but can be purchased through The Blue Shoe Project from their website.
Article comments
1 - Mark Saleski
nice review josh. dang, another cd to add to the list.
2 - d alper
Since Manny' s Car Wash closed, sadly, about seven years ago here in NYC, we Blues Hounds have been deprived of such great inspirational artists like Pinetop, Gatemouth and Johnnie Johnson. They are sadly missed and am glad that someone was smart enough to put together an album like Live In Dallas before these national treasures are no longer here to show us how to 'jellyroll!"
3 - Josh
Thanks, Mark... it is such a worthwhile purchase and a joy to listen to. I wasn't real familiar with Townsend before getting this, and now I'm going to have to go digging for more.
D Alper, it's a shame that the blues has been pushed to the fringe by the industry. That's why I've been writing about these artists and albums. The industry may have their collective head up their arse, but the rest of us need not suffer that same fate. This is a great record. I hope you check it out.
4 - Jay
Johnnie Johnson was mentioned. Yes, Manny's has closed awhile back, but far worse, Johnnie passed in 2005. Just months later, Little Milton followed.
Johnnie left us with a last , great cd, "Johnnie Be Eighty. And Still Bad!". It is only available on the web, at www.cousinmoemusic.com, and cdbaby.com.
Blues in & around NYC, well it ain't dead yet. You just have to look longer and harder. But it is there to be heard.
5 - Josh
In a rare display of inspiration, this was nominated for a Grammy today!